Monday, 26 November 2007

Thinking's alternate phases

"There was no conscious content for the actual judgment itself, although such a judgment was embedded in the consciousness of the problem, its materials, and technique."

The conclusion Julian Jaynes arrived, to explain the result of Karl Marbe's experiment in 1901, where he asked his professors to make a simple judgment between two identical looking weights as to which was the heavier, hints towards an alternating thinking process. A part where consciousness sorts out the materials, and takes care of them and these are the concepts and ideas, all the data held in the mind, at that particular moment, full with their properties and extensions as well as information about how these can be processed, the technique, but that is as far as it could go.

The actual processing escapes consciousness. It is done in the absence of consciousness. A stage where all the calculations, functions, variables is so intensive that consciousness is to slow to follow? It is so chaotic that consciousness will slow it down? Maybe it could go even deeper, in quantum computations, consciousness is unable to record?

Thinking accomplished in alternate phases? A preparation stage where everything needed is taken care of, a conscious phase. And a functional stage, where the actual process of thinking takes place, which is so complicated that is beyond consciousness's detection machinery, consciousness is unable to follow. An unconscious phase? A chaotic phase driven by quantum computations?

Consciousness is reduced to the level of the spectator and

"at the point of success , your consciousness is somewhat surprised and even proud of you .."